Snow Day 
(... must be time to blog again)

I realize that I have a pattern of blogging during February snow days.  It's one of the few times when I feel I have enough unscheduled time to indulge in writing about things.  Okay, maybe that's an overstatement, but I clearly have a pattern of doing this.  In fact, many of the posts over the past few years are weather related.

This storm is no record breaker for us.  It's a typical "nor'easter."  But this storm system really punched the south before heading up to us.  Atlanta and Spartanburg saw snow, ice or both.  What a mess.

This was to be the last day of school before the Presidents' Day week of vacation.  Timing is everything.  It means that I can skip over the Valentine's Day activities.  It rarely impacts my schedule, but the kids can become unglued by the whole thing, because of the parties and the card exchanging.  I'm a Scrooge.  True to form, I'm glad to skip all of that.

Abbie's getting over a concussion this week.  She got elbowed in the head last Saturday at cheer practice, coming out of a stunt.  We didn't take her to the emergency room until Monday evening, and although her only symptom had been a headache, the doctor told us to have her sit out of all physical activities for about a week.  At this point, the headache seems to be gone, so we expect that our doctor will clear her for PE and cheer when she sees him on Monday.

We have little chance to be in touch with Nate at this stage.  He called the house on Tuesday night to wish Kim happy birthday.  He said that he wouldn't be able to call on Wednesday since the group would be heading into the wilderness for a week of winter camping.  He told her not to worry; they changed the route for this outing to avoid the areas where there are currently avalanche warnings.  If he had been here when he told her that, I might have dope slapped him.  She doesn't seem to be too anxious about what he's doing, but she may be choosing not to think about it.  I'm trying not to bring it up.


The group has a Facebook page and they have posted some photos from the first event, ice climbing.  I'm hoping that whoever started this documenting will continue it through the whole experience.  I find it exciting to see updates about what he's doing.  The Facebook page also has a link to another site/application that seems to be tracking the location of the professor leading the group.  It's cool to be able to look at a map or satellite picture and see where they are...  if that is, in fact, what the app does.

Link to the Facebook page.
Link to the tracking tool.
Link to the Colorado Outward Bound Facebook page
Link to the Colorado Outward Bound Site.

We don't have a whole lot planned for the week off.  We have made a few appointments for doctor visits and tax preparation.  On Wednesday and Thursday, we'll be in NYC, just because we want to go and spend some time away.  Sounds like the weather will be milder on those days, so it should be easy to get around.  Abbie will take her driving test next Friday, so we'll also try to spend some time practicing each day.  She's driving very well, and I expect that she'll pass the test easily.  We just need to spend a little time practicing parking, but that's been very hard to do during the last few months, since it hard to find a quiet street where you can actually see the curb.